R/E/P Community
R/E/P => Recording - Engineering & Production => Topic started by: Dinogi on March 06, 2013, 05:52:51 AM
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This may not be appropriate for a website dedicated to professional music recording engineers, but as I respect and trust the opinions here, I wanted to hear from you guys first. Please don't kill me.
Apogee's recent introduction of the Quartet interface, AND support for recording to an iPad has rekindled my desire for a portable, grab and go, TRACKING ONLY system. I have a desktop Mac based DAW but it's no longer practical to haul around for this broken down old fart. I would still be mixing and processing on this system.
Pairing the iPad with a high quality interface, even if it is just four channels, would seem the nearly perfect solution for someone like myself. My question is whether to take advantage of the reduced cost of an iPad which would offset the cost of the 1200 dollar interface, and negate the need for an external HD, or bite the bullet and go with a Macbook Pro and an external HD. There's also the issue of how to get files out of the iPad and into the computer.
You guys got any thoughts on this?
Again, I apologize if this should have been posted on a forum for amateurs.
olduncledinogiammattei
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Should work fine... just transfer your stuff when you get back to the house.
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Thanks Fletcher,
The whole idea of using an iPad for recording is still a new concept, and as such there's not a lot of clear cut information out there about it. My fear is that after shelling out the price of an iPad and the proprietary cabling, it somehow won't live up to expectations, and I would eventually end up needing a laptop anyway. As an example, say at some point I wanted to expand by adding a used Ensemble or even a second Quartet. Would the iPad be able to support that? It looks like I need to do some additional homework on the subject.
As more folks take this route, I'm sure there will be more information available to assist in making a good decision. In the meantime, in spite of it being a big PITA, it looks like I'll be dragging my current multi rack case setup around for a while longer. At least it's already paid for itself.
Respectfully,
olduncledinogiammattei
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While I would NEVER claim to be an expert -- from what I understand about it -- if you get the iPad with the largest memory / RAM you should be able to get reasonable recording time from it -- the bitch of course would be doing the transfer to a "studio" machine.
A laptop might be preferable as you have greater flexibility in transfer options and they don't take up a whole hell of a lot more space.
Hope this is of some assistance.
Peace
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"A laptop might be preferable as you have greater flexibility in transfer options and they don't take up a whole hell of a lot more space."
"Hope this is of some assistance".
S#!+...You've always been of great assistance to me big guy.. both as gear pimp, and in your well thought out responses to this old farts inane posts. Your point about the laptop mirrors what the common sense side of my brain is saying. The iPad also lacks a CD drive, and of course most of the usual hard wire connections. It uses "fragile, proprietary, cables". A half dozen TV studio builds taught me to hate dedicated, expensive, oddball connectors.
The interesting thing is; all the rig has to be is a #&%*! tape recorder. The Quartet box I'm GASing over is four tracks at 24/96 or twelve tracks at 24/48. I would imagine that even an older Macbook would handle the job without working up a sweat. The cost of a jacked up iPad and that of a used Macbook might be within striking distance of each other. It looks like I have a little more homework to do.
From one curmudgeonly old guy to another... Thank you sir, olduncledinogiammattei
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Glad to have been of some assistance... if I actually owned the MacBook I'm typing this on [its owned by a manufacturer I do some ancillary writing for] I'd sell it to ya cheap in a heartbeat... but alas I don't.
Best of luck with all you do!!
Peace